- Статьи
- Culture
- From machine to machine: how choreographer Boris Akimov trains dancers at the age of 79
From machine to machine: how choreographer Boris Akimov trains dancers at the age of 79
Six times a week at 10 a.m., People's Artist of the USSR Boris Akimov comes to work and gives a class to ballet dancers. Moreover, he does not just dictate schemes and come up with combinations, but shows them himself, jumps and works at the machine at the age of 79. Izvestia visited the unique lesson of the master and learned what the secret of the Russian ballet school is, which is still applauded by the whole world.
Dance teacher
Every morning of the Bolshoi Ballet Company begins the same way — with a choreography class. A few minutes before it, dancers gather in a large, bright hall with a high ceiling and a floor covered with special ballet linoleum. Boris Akimov usually leads the men's class, but now there are girls and boys at the machine, from corps de ballet performers to soloists.
One wall is completely covered with mirrors to monitor the body lines, the position of the arms, and the accuracy of the feet. A rounded wooden bar — machine is fixed along three walls at a certain height. Two more stand parallel to the mirror. Sometimes teachers and artists simply refer to the machine as a "stick." Holding on to it with one or two hands, they begin the morning exercise — from the French exercise, that is, "exercise".
The class lasts exactly one hour and runs non-stop. On command, the concertmaster begins to play calm, slightly lulling music on the piano.
Once upon a time it was different: in the XVII–XIX centuries, the teacher himself accompanied the lesson by playing the violin. Sometimes, the bow touched not only the strings, but also the back or legs of a lazy student. Today, the main instrument is the voice. And it sounds right away.
— Batman tandu. The fifth. Grand plie on the fifth. Batman tandu. They changed it. Grand plie on the fifth to the second. Pore de bra back. Opened, closed. Free up," comes Akimov's soft voice.
The master not only voices the combinations, but also shows each movement.
To an outsider, this sounds like a strange Russian-French cipher. In a sense, it is. Ballet terminology is a legacy of the French school of the 17th century, and every word here denotes an exact action.
"Batman" literally means "blow". In ballet technique, this is a generalized name for a whole group of movements when a leg makes a swing and is carried forward, sideways or backward — sometimes in a jump, sometimes slowly. With the "tandem" prefix, the working foot slides across the floor and is placed on the toe forward, backward or to the side.
The Grand Plie is a deep squat with maximum knee flexion, while the port de bra sets the arms moving, smoothly guiding them through classic positions — three for the arms and five for the legs. The wording "from fifth to second" determines the position of the feet.
Everyone in the audience has known this language since childhood.
Mastery at your fingertips
The artists warm up for the first 10-15 minutes. Most people wear special ballet chunis on their feet — soft, insulated slippers that look like small ugg boots. They protect muscles and ligaments while the body is still warm. Over the tights are warm pants, long—sleeved hoodies on the shoulders.
Akimov spends about 20 seconds explaining, and half a minute doing it. The music is changing, and a new combination is playing.
— Draw a rhombus. We pass all the points. From machine to machine. Release the arabesque! — the master addresses the young man at the leftmost machine and stands next to him.
In short pauses, warm pants, hoodies, and chunis come off. Girls put pointe shoes on their feet, boys put on ballet flats.
In the ballet world, Boris Akimov's name is remembered almost the first time when it comes to pedagogy. For six decades in the profession, the choreographer has worked at London's Covent Garden, Milan's La Scala Theater, mentored the Asami Maki Ballet troupe in Tokyo, taught at the Vienna, Hamburg and Bavarian State Operas, the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, the Paris National Opera, the Dutch National Opera and Ballet Theater, London the Royal Ballet School and, of course, at the Mariinsky and Bolshoi Theaters.
Among his students are soloists of the Bolshoi Theater Irek Mukhamedov, Alexander Vetrov, Ilze Liepa, Gediminas Taranda, Yuri Posokhov, Andrey Uvarov, Gennady Yanin, Vyacheslav Lopatin.
— Knee support! Watch out! The shin works easily. From the hip," Akimov says and goes to another machine.
While concentration reigns on the faces of the young dancers, Boris Borisovich radiates so much vitality that it would be enough to supply electricity to a large city all year round. At the age of 79, he performs all the combinations not just with the artists, but on a par with them.
— I arrive every day at 10 a.m. My task is not just to give combinations or movements, but to give something more. The class starts early: the boys arrive a little sleepy, tired after the previous day. Our task is to wake them up. Wake up the body, physiology, warm up a little for the whole day. Just as a violinist plays before a concert, so I have to play them. So that after class they enter the rehearsal hall in a good mood, with a prepared physical apparatus," Akimov told Izvestia after class.
The master pays attention not so much to the elements as to the details — fingers, hand line, mood. Mistakes don't annoy him. He does not give edifying lectures, does not get indignant and does not scold the dancers if something did not work out for them.
"It's okay. We just keep working. You can set any combination, but it's important to me that it contains colors. Because it's not just a performer of movements who should go on stage, but an artist. If a dancer has done a great job in the hall and found shades in the part, then it's interesting to look at him," he explained to Izvestia.
From figure skater to ballet soloist
Boris Akimov admits that modern ballet has become much more technical. A lot of acrobatic elements appeared in it. And the artists themselves focus more on technique than on artistic content. Although, according to the master, it is the latter that has always distinguished Russian ballet from other world schools.
Half of the class is behind. The rows at the machines are thinning. The pace is accelerating. The dancers are divided into two groups — "first" and "second". Four of the first line and six of the second line remain to pirouette. The rest catch their breath on the sidelines or quietly leave the hall.
Akimov continues to smile and insist that the students soar and feel freedom. After another series of jumps, the artists' breathing becomes heavier, sweat appears on their faces, and a quiet "Oh my God" is heard at the machine.
As if he had heard these pleas, the master says encouragingly, "Guys, we're being patient, there's still a little bit left. Now from one diagonal to the other."
Akimov himself did not join the ballet immediately. As a child, he was seriously involved in figure skating and even became the Moscow youth champion in singles and doubles. The skaters attended a choreography lesson three times a week. It was conducted by Anatoly Yelagin, an artist of the Bolshoi Theater. It was he who first noticed the boy's dancing abilities. However, the parents were doubtful. Ballet is a difficult profession.
Everything was decided by chance. Half of the sports group got jaundice. After the illness, the children were forbidden serious exercise for almost six months. At that time, the Moscow State Academy of Choreography announced an experimental set — not from the age of nine, as usual, but from 12. Akimov completed three rounds and got into the class of teacher Elena Sergievskaya. Later, at the Bolshoi, he studied with the legendary Alexei Ermolaev, a man whom he still calls a teacher with phenomenal thinking.
Akimov has been a soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre for almost a quarter of a century. He danced in the ballets Spartacus (Crassus), Swan Lake (The Evil Genius), Ivan the Terrible (Kurbsky) by Yuri Grigorovich, and soloed in Mikhail Fokin's Chopinianus and Vladimir Vasiliev's Icarus.
The dancer's career was interrupted by injuries — cracks in the bone tissue of both legs. It's a typical ballet story. That is why, after becoming a teacher, Akimov began to develop his own system. This is how his "soft class" appeared — a technique that gradually warms up muscles and reduces the risk of injury.
"I want them to dance." When you dance, you feel like you're alive, that you're still throbbing," he told Izvestia after class.
Boris Akimov makes these words sound especially strong. At the end of the class, he suddenly apologizes: he didn't have to work at full strength because of the pain in his right leg. After the class, the master changes his wet clothes for dry ones, drinks strong coffee and goes to the next rehearsal. And this is the 60th season in a row.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
